Market voices on:

The commodity had enjoyed a surge from Friday to early Tuesday as Moscow and Riyadh - the world's two biggest producers - prepared for talks on a rout that has seen the cost of a barrel collapse and hammered global markets.

But the conditional agreement between Saudi Arabia - the de facto leader of Opec - Russia, Venezuela and Qatar to freeze output at record January levels, rather than make cuts, left a bad taste in the mouths of traders, sending both main contracts into reverse.

But the meeting in Tehran between historic rivals Iran and Iraq - as well as Venezuela - provided some support for the beleaguered commodity Wednesday.

"Iraq and Iran are the two countries that are going to contribute to growth from the Opec nations this year," Richard Gorry, managing director at JBC Energy Asia in Singapore, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

"Getting an agreement from these is going to be very difficult, particularly in the case of Iran," he added, referring to the fact the country has only just started exporting after Western nuclear-linked sanctions were lifted.

"I wouldn't expect oil to breach US$40 until we get into the second half of the year, that's simply because we're massively oversupplied still."